Random thoughts on a hot button issue

If I were to ask who benefits from affirmative action or preferential college admissions, I'd bet thatthe majority of respondents would answer either racial and ethnic minorities or women.

And at the risk of over-generalizing, I'd bet that many who oppose affirmative action or preferential admissions favor merit-based decisions, based on objective measures, like SAT, GPA, etc.

This clip from the NBC Nightly News talks of another group that may in fact be beneficiaries of preferential ttreatment, namely men. Some colleges are lowering their admissions standards for men in an attempt to close the gender gap.

So, my random thoughts:

1. Affirmative action is always difficult to discuss because it means different things to different people. I assume that all of the men selected are "qualified" notwithstanding their SATs or GPAs. In other words, the preference is exercised to select from a pool of individuals, all of whom are qualifed. That one applicant may have scored 30 points higher on the SAT or accomplished a GPA 2/10 of a point higher than the next person doesn't make that applicant necessarily "more qualifed" such that it is wrong or even unfair to choose the one whose numbers are lower.

2. The concept of preferential treatment for men probably challenges the views of many on the whole issue.

3. It's official: now everyone is preferred somewhere. One just has to find the school where their gender or race or ethnicity, etc. is under-represented.

4. Many minorities can tell of the times when someone, based on scant evidence, assumed that they were admitted only because of affirmative action. Will men, particularly white men, start to have similar experiences?

5. I agree with what the colleges are doing. The environment in which one learns is important for all concerned.